Dia de Los Muertos, Puerto Vallarta Style

This is our third time experiencing Dia de los Muertos in Mexico, the first time was 20-years ago in Yucatan. Last year we were in San Carlos. This year in Puerto Vallarta was by far the best. You may be familiar with the face-painted Catrinas y Catrines, sugar skulls, and colorfully decorated altars...

In case you're not familiar with this Mexican tradition, here's a little background. The celebration of ancestral spirits has been a Mexican tradition dating back to to 3,000 B.C, pre-Mayan and Aztec days. When the Spanish Missionaries arrived in Mexico in the 1700's they tried to abolish this custom with out any success. So instead they incorporated some Catholic icons from All Souls Day, and today the Dia de Los Muertos celebration encompasses traditional indigenous customs along with a few Catholic ones sprinkled in. Each village, town, and city puts their own spin onto the celebrations, so you may experience different customs in different parts of Mexico.

As we learned, the traditional painted faces and sugar skulls are just a part of the Dia de Los Muertos celebrations. Graves and cemeteries are also decorated with bright orange, strongly-scented marigolds which help lead the spirits of the deceased ancestors back home for 24 hours of celebration each year on November 2nd. Family gatherings and parties to celebrate their ancestors include favorite foods and drinks of the deceased.

This is a HAPPY time to CELEBRATE LIFE, and is not a sad, mournful event. As it was explained "we are not sad that they are no longer with us, we are happy that they have come back to party with us for one night each year." The festival in Puerto Vallarta culminates in a parade from the cemetery to the Malecon.

No Tricks! We even got the Green Flash on Halloween night!

In other news, Kirk has recovered great from his latest pacemaker re-wiring, and we're currently visiting family in the states while friends Judy & Paul are taking care of Tosh & Tikka for us. We MISS our furbies! Stay tuned for another blog post soon about our road-trip Mexican style! In the mean time we'll be enjoying Banderas Bay this holiday season, so let us know if your'e coming to PV for the holidays, we'd love to see you!

Captain Kirk grew up sailing on Lake Washington and has been boating his whole life. He has been racing sailboats for about 40 years, including two Vic-Maui races (from Victoria, BC to Maui, Hawaii), one in 1990, and the other on Due West in 1996. [...]Kirk has also crewed on numerous deliveries on the west coast of the US from Alaska to Mexico, and Florida, and the Caribbean. He is a USCG licensed Captain.

First-mate and "Navi-GIRL" Heidi has been sailing for 25+ years. She had the good fortune to be exposed to sailing as a kid on the Chesapeake and in the Caribbean, though she didn't really "learn" to sail until college. She also raced Vic-Maui on Due West in 1996, including organizing and provisioning for 8 crew for 25 days (even though we finished the race in 17 days.) She has crewed on several deliveries from Seattle to California. Heidi is also a certified Holistic Health Coach who blogs about holistic health and nutrition at Happy Well Lifestyle, and reps an amazing line of toxin-free, cruelty-free, fair-trade, sustainable, organic Health & Beauty products out of the UK, Neil's Yard Remedies Organic.

Heidi & Kirk met racing on an old 44' IOR boat, and have spent the past 25+ years racing and cruising around the Pacific Northwest and California. We have also chartered many times in the Caribbean, in both the Grenadines and in the British Virgin Islands.

We are THRILLED to finally have kitten-energy back aboard Due West again! Our new crew-mates, Tosh (Bengal Tabby) and Tikka (Tuxedo) are a bundle of energy and JOY, and are getting their sea legs.

Cruisers", and our cruising friends call us "The Racers." We consider ourselves to be "Performance Cruisers," and are looking forward to finding racing opportunities in other countries as we cruise the world. We are particularly looking forward to racing in Antigua Race Week once we get over to the Caribbean side of the world.